White House Refuses to Confirm if Biden Discussed Ukraine Funding with Speaker

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is “confident and optimistic” that Congress will pass more funding for Ukraine. However, the White House did not confirm to Newsmax whether the president has spoken to him about the details and price tag of the supplemental package.

“I will have to get back to you on whether there was a specific conversation with the speaker on the supplemental,” National Security spokesman John Kirby said Thursday afternoon.

Kirby, who spoke at the regular briefing for White House correspondents, did say, “We have had numerous discussions and briefings with members of Congress and staff members on the importance of the supplemental.”

But he did leave little doubt that the White House wanted a supplemental that included what he called “all four buckets — Israel, Ukraine, Indo-Pacific and border security” rather than the “stand-alone” packages sought by a growing number of House Republicans and reportedly favored by Johnson himself.

“The reason it’s a supplemental is they are all urgent,” Kirby told us.

He concluded by stressing that it was imperative for Congress to take action before the holidays.

“As I said earlier, we are running out of runway for Ukraine and I would say the same thing about Israel,” said Kirby. “We’ve had some existing authority to support Israel. But that well is not endlessly deep either.”

Discussion on the amount in the supplemental has varied from $47 billion to $60 billion.